This was in The Pillar’s Starting Seven this morning: The four countries with the highest percentages of weekly Mass attendance in Europe are Poland (49%), Slovakia (46%), Italy (32%), and Ireland (31%), a new study has concluded.
JOAN’S ROME TURNS 20!
Twenty years ago, March 1, 2006, in my sixth month as EWTN’s Rome Bureau Chief, I wrote my first column for a blog called Joan’s Rome! I was stunned to realize that a few days ago and, as I write, I look back in astonishment at those two decades of covering Popes, papal trips, deaths and conclaves – Benedict XVI had been Pope for a year at the time, Francis would be elected in 2013 and Leo XIV in May, 2025 – the Roman Curia, the Universal Church, and epic moments of Church history.
The Popes of Joan’s Rome –
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At the time, and for a number of months, it was a weekly column appearing on Fridays on the EWTN website, a summary of all the top news stories of the week at the Vatican. Eventually, it became a daily column as there simply was so much news coming from the Vatican every day of the week. Eventually, I added photos and, as technology advanced, I posted videos and much more. For several years, Joan’s Rome appeared on EWTN’s website under “Blogs. I’ve tried to find some of the early columns but that link is gone. Joan’s Rome, as you know, is now at http://www.joansrome.wordpress.com
The first column was actually posted 20 years ago yesterday, March 3, 2006, though I began writing it on March 1.
In that first “Joan’s Rome,” I introduced myself, writing what some of you may recognize from the introduction to my book “A Holy Year in Rome”:
Welcome to Rome, the Eternal City where the churches, piazzas, fountains and palazzi are old but the spirit is young! Welcome to a city whose traffic, irrational parking and inconsistent store hours can drive you to distraction but whose magic and millennia of history persuade you to come back frequently, if not to stay forever, as I decided to do many years ago.
The bureaucracy can be maddening and Italians have an inexplicable knack of finding the longest possible route to accomplishing a task – but that is all part of the fun, and the challenge. Italians have managed for millennia to deal with the idiosyncrasies of life here – described by one writer as “the splendid eternal chaos” – by rolling with the punches. In Italian this is called l’arte di arrangiarsi, the knack of getting along. If something isn’t working, they shrug their shoulders and say pazienza (patience). And eventually it works.
You will be enchanted by Rome and the Vatican – as millions have been before you. The magic is there – it pulsates, vibrates and defies description. It is the history, art, majestic basilicas, elegant bridges, splendid piazzas, cobblestone streets, bubbling fountains, and the symphony of church bells. Perhaps you will come to Rome some time for Holy Week. Once upon a time, if you stayed up until midnight when Holy Saturday becomes Easter Sunday, the Resurrection was announced by the simultaneous ringing of the bells of most of Rome’s hundreds of churches!
Rome’s magic is in the smile of a flower vendor, the rich baritone of a waiter who unexpectedly serenades you, the exuberance of a child playing with pigeons in St. Peter’s square or the joy of gathering with friends to dine on some of the most delicious cuisine this side of paradise. It is in the air of a deserted city early on Sunday morning when Rome seems to belong to you alone before a rush to church. It is in the startling quiet of St. Peter’s Square in early morning hours as black-clad monsignori hurry along to say Mass in the splendid basilica or nearby chapels and churches or perhaps get to their offices in the Vatican.
It is that single indescribable, unrepeatable moment during a Wednesday audience or a Sunday Angelus when you are in the presence of a man in white – the Holy Father, the Supreme Pontiff, the Servant of the Servants of God, the Successor of Peter.
The Holy Father – the Holy See… we have it all here!
If you have guessed I love Rome, you are half right. I am in love with Rome.
I have the best of both worlds, as the saying goes, for not only am I blessed to live in the city I love, I am doubly blessed to work for the Church I love. In my years at the Vatican Information Service, in the Holy See Press Office, and now as Bureau Chief in Rome for EWTN, I have served the Church that has been my life – for all of my life. To be a member of the Catholic Church is a blessing, to serve the Church is an honor, to serve the Church here in Rome, at the Vatican, at the center, is a unique and indescribable privilege.
With “Joan’s Rome,” I hope to share that world with you each week by looking at the latest news in the Vatican and attempting to offer insights and understanding of events and people, rituals and ceremonies, documents and decisions. There will be profiles as well, of both people and offices, and the occasional behind-the-scenes glimpses into life in the Vatican and the Roman Curia. Even the occasional piece of trivia! For example, did you know that there are only two States in the world whose flags are officially square – not rectangular – in shape? Vatican City State is one – and the other is Switzerland.
As I write this first edition of “Joan’s Rome,” it is Ash Wednesday, March 1, 2006. It is a day that ends an exciting week in the Vatican – 15 new cardinals were announced at last Wednesday’s general audience – and starts the austere Lenten period of fasting, penance and prayer in preparation for Holy Week and Easter of the Resurrection. For the Pope, Ash Wednesday meant the weekly general audience and, in the afternoon, a penitential procession from St. Anselm Church to Santa Sabina Basilica on the Aventine Hill to receive and to distribute ashes during Mass.
A sure sign in Vatican City that Lent had arrived could be seen in the supermarket which bans – on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday – the sale of any and all meat products!
At that point in my first blog, I began the overview of the week’s news highlights…
And here’s to many more years….
As I started clicking on the blogs I wrote that first year, 2006, I was struck by the many important events, including Pope Benedict’s trip to Turkey, new cardinals, much more.
Inteestingly, I posted the following on April 24, 2006: it piqued my curiosity because now, 2026, we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of St. Peter’s Basilica. The time differential? One date marks the laying of the cornerstone (1506), the second date the dedication of the completed basilica (2026).
A BASILICA MARKS 500 YEARS
The cornerstone for St. Peter’s Basilica was laid exactly 500 years ago on April 18, 1506 by Pope Julius II in a spot that today we know as the pillar of St. Veronica, one of the four massive pillars named for saints that support the dome designed by Michelangelo. More than a century was needed to complete the church and the new basilica, built over the one erected by Emperor Constantine in the fourth century over the burial site of St. Peter, was dedicated on November 18, 1626.
A press conference Thursday in the Vatican announced the calendar of celebrations to mark the half millennium of the world’s most famous church. Events include a Mass of thanksgiving on the June 29th solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, an exhibit entitled “Petros Eni (Peter is here),” an international seminar on “St. Peter in Scripture, Devotions and Iconography” and commemorative medals and stamps. On November 19, the Vienna Philharmonic will perform Mozart’s Solemn Requiem Mass. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, archbishop of Vienna, has organized and promoted the concert on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as well as for the 500th anniversary of the start of the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, who has worked for the Holy See for 50 years and is currently the archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said no other monument in the world had as many famous architects and artists work on it as did St. Peter’s, men such as Bramante, Michelangelo, Sangallo, Raphael, Fontana, Bernini and Maderno. He said the basilica archives have 3,050,000 documents that refer to it, from when work started 500 years ago right up to today.
Noting that between five and 20 thousand people visit every day, with as many as 30,000 during the high tourist season, the cardinal said he often goes into the basilica in the morning to speak with visitors. “I am amazed when they tell me of their impressions at being in this church, whose structure and artistic decoration make it a true work of ‘first evangelization’.”
And this –
THE SWISS GUARDS: YOUNGER THAN EVER AT AGE 500
Color and music and history and tradition were all alive and flourishing in the Vatican from May 3 to May 7, 2006 as the Pontifical Swiss Guards celebrated their 500th anniversary with a series of concerts, festive celebrations and solemn liturgies. The festivities began with a concert by the Swiss Army Concert Band in the Paul VI Hall on May 3 and ended on Sunday, May 7, in St. Peter’s Square with a concert after the Regina Coeli with Pope Benedict. Former Swiss Guards and the newly sworn-in guards gathered for events in Rome and the Vatican with thousands of their friends and family members to celebrate this milestone date in Guard history.
The colorful swearing-in ceremony this year took place in St. Peter’s Square given the large numbers of people in attendance. Previsions had been for rain but the thousands in attendance sat in a sun-splashed square to listen to music, witness the swearing-in of 33 new halberdiers and view military corps including the Honorable Artillery Company from Boston, the Honorable Artillery Company (founded in London in 1537, the oldest regiment in the British Army), the Guardia Real from Madrid, and the Contingent des Grenadiers Fribourgeois from Switzerland.
For the festivities, a Jubilee Pass costing €75 was made available to guests of the guards in offices in Rome and Switzerland, allowing visitors to see certain areas of the guard barracks in Vatican City, to participate in a number of concerts and other events, and to enter the exhibit in the Braccio di Carlomagno Hall near St. Peter’s Basilica entitled “Pontifical Swiss Guards. History, Art and Life.” For five days, the broader Swiss Guard “family” could be spotted sporting their badges throughout the city of Rome, but especially in the vicinity of the Vatican and Castel Sant’Angelo. (and more…)
Joan's Rome 